baserunning
 

Situation: Runner leaves first on a fly ball to center field, tags second but left 1b to early has to go back.He does not retouch 2b on his way back to 1b and is called out. If the runner did not legally get to second in the first place why does he have to retouch?

Because as an umpire, you are to assume that runners have touched the base until properly appealed. In other words, even if you see a runner miss a base, you will call him safe, then when properly appealed, call him out. Sounds crazy but the onus is on the defense to make the proper appeal or the runner stays where he is. Carry this through with an advancing runner and you have to assume that the runner did, in fact touch 2nd base until the defense appeals.

I think the rules have something to do with it.

OBR 7.02 In advancing, a runner shall touch first, second, third and home base in order. If forced to return, he shall retouch all bases in reverse order, unless the ball is dead under any provision of Rule 5.09. In such cases, the runner may go directly to his original base.

I Need a Rule book! THanks for the citation

Official Baseball Rules are online (http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/downloads/y20...ball_Rules.pdf)

-Josh